Former head of Barclays carbon trading launches advisory firm

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Louis Redshaw, the former head of
carbon, coal and iron ore trading at Barclays
investment bank, has launched a London-based advisory firm to
help companies manage their risks stemming from carbon trading.

Redshaw Advisors, which will also provide carbon finance for
client firms, is banking on a return to growth for the world's
emissions trading markets, many of which have been hit by low
prices and falling demand in the wake of the global economic
crisis.

"This is an exciting time for the carbon markets because for
once all the news is about growth or potential for growth and
the time is right to prepare for this," Redshaw said in an
emailed statement.

Redshaw said the firm would focus initially on the European
carbon market, the world's largest, before moving into the
United States and Asia.

He has hired Margaret-Ann Splawn, a former trader with
London-based B&A Capital and DASCO Partners, as head of sales,
and former Barclays colleague Rachel Caffarate as head of legal.

Redshaw Advisors also announced a partnership with energy
market analysts Energy Aspects and the firm's lead carbon
analyst Trevor Sikorski, also a former Barclays colleague.

Redshaw and Sikorski parted ways with Barclays in early 2013
as the bank cut its emissions trading and analysis team, before
it closed its European and U.S. energy trading businesses
earlier this year.

Pollution permit prices across the world's carbon markets
have plummeted since 2008, partly because of the financial
crisis but also because governments have stopped short of
committing to more ambitious action in cutting greenhouse gas
emissions.

However, carbon prices in the European Union are on the rise
as the bloc reforms its market, while regional and state-level
trading programmes in the United States are poised for expansion
under President Barack Obama's proposed emissions regulations.
(Reporting by Michael Szabo; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)